Badlands Saga: Reincarnation in a Different World with Extreme Charisma - Chapter 40

Chapter 40   Too Late To Die 3

As the rock dwarves’ workshop gradually took shape, the first thing to be brought to the wasteland was surprisingly entertainment for the children.

One winter day, I took the castle children and my sister Muuna to watch the construction of the workshop. While we were drinking tea that Harriett made and eating cookies from Makiao, one of the rock dwarves brought us an iron hoop intended for barrels.

“You take this like this, hit it with a stick, and roll it!”

“Wow, wow! Let me try! Let me try!”

“I want to do it too!”
“Me too! Me too!”

They hit the hoop with a short stick and rolled it. It was just that simple of a game, but for the children, who had little to no access to entertainment, it was a huge hit.

Everyone abandoned the construction site tour to chase the hoop, rolling around and playing.

“Fusha-sama, don’t you have games like this around here?”

“Not really… There’s really nothing here, and there weren’t even any toys to play with.”

While we, as the lords, had toys for children, the kids here were orphans. The fact that they could finally play freely only recently was probably why they were so excited.

“I see… that’s a bit unfortunate.”

The rock dwarf, who had been watching the children, then brought two additional iron hoops.

While these were originally materials for the workshop, it was fine as long as the children were happy.

By the time the children headed home, they were exhausted from chasing the hoops until sunset, but they hugged the three iron hoops given to them by the rock dwarf like treasures.

While dealing with the problems flooding into Tanukan like a mudslide, I had completely forgotten that…

Play is incredibly important for life.

The reason I wanted to get out of the castle quickly in the first place was that I wanted to find something enjoyable to distract myself from the daily monotony.

The former orphans worked diligently every day, even in winter, so it wasn’t that they looked bored…

Just because they were busy and didn’t have free time doesn’t mean they weren’t bored.

“What’s that?”

In the tower’s laboratory, which was gently warm even in winter thanks to the dragon’s egg, Harriett, who had been increasingly able to speak Tadra language recently, pointed at the white powder in my hand and asked.

“This is the raw material for plastic.”

When I answered that, she asked again in Makiano’s language, “What does that mean?”

“Plastic is the name of something made by melting this down. It’s a material made from petroleum.”

“Oh, and what do you use it for?”

The phoenix chick in her hands also peered curiously at the powder, but this isn’t food.

While it’s a biodegradable plastic that decomposes in the natural environment, it’s not something you can eat.

“This is something like a lightweight glass that doesn’t break easily. I thought I’d make a toy for the children with this.”

“Well, those kids just got iron hoops the other day.”

“You can never have too many toys. It’s most important for humans to live happily.”

“That’s true.”

I think the biggest commonality between Harriett and me is that we both dislike boredom.

A life without play is dull.

I absolutely refuse to live such a life.

Well, since we live among people, we have to bear responsibilities…

But fun and responsibility are like the loads on either side of a scale.

It’s fine to substitute fun with love or ambition, but if the weight of each side isn’t balanced, it’s difficult to live well as a human.

In my previous life, I saw bosses and colleagues who only kept piling responsibility on their side of the scale until they broke.

“Right now, Tanukan may not seem like a place with a bright future. But I still want the children to grow up happily, age joyfully, and die happily.”

“Hmm. Well, that’s better than slowly dying in misery, right? Of course, you can’t live just on fun alone.”

Harriett seemed somewhat disinterested as she said that, returning the chirping phoenix chick to its cage and lifting the kettle off the dragon’s egg.

As she poured tea into a cup with her right hand, she picked up feeding pellets for the chick with her left.

Watching her quietly, she gave me a somewhat cynical smile and shook the kettle toward me.

Then, in a somewhat cute tone, she asked, “Do you want some tea?”

“I think I will.”

“Go ahead, it’s fine.”

With the sound of children’s laughter echoing from outside the tower, I slowly spent my time shaving down the block of plastic while sipping on Makiano-style tea with milk and salt.

The next day, I stood before the children, who had finished tending to the fields, holding the toy I had made the night before.

“Fusha-sama, what’s that?”

“This is called a flying disc.”

“Oh, a serving tray!”

“Yes, it looks like a serving tray.”

The object, carved into a shallow, cloudy white shape, was a toy that, when thrown while spinning, would create lift and fly far away.

If I was giving something to the children, I thought it should be simple enough to allow for various ways to play, and honestly, I wouldn’t be able to make it if it wasn’t something like that.

Well, I suppose they could just throw a serving tray to play, but…

A wooden tray is a bit heavy for children, and it could hurt if they hit something with it.

Plus, the children’s parents probably wouldn’t think too highly of them playing with dishware.

“Fusha-sama, what do we do with this?”

“Just watch, you throw it like this.”

As I said that, I threw the disc…

Though slightly misshapen, it wobbled while generating lift and flew off into the distance.

“Whoa!!”

“That’s amazing!!”

The children chased after the disc, kicking up clouds of dust as they sprinted across the wasteland.

“Next! I want to throw it next!”

“Whoever gets it first wins!”

“Hey, hey, it’s my turn, let’s take turns!”

In the end, that day the children rolled around until they were covered in dirt, throwing the flying discs, and I was thoroughly satisfied with how it turned out.

However…

Three days later, the children came crying, holding what used to be a flying disc.

At the forefront was my sister, Muuna, who hugged me while crying loudly, “Chi-nii-sama!”

In her small hand, she was gripping something small and black, resembling burnt charcoal.

“Mom, Mom was trying to bake a pie! But it burned!”

“Wait, Mom tried to use that to bake a pie?”

Well, I guess it makes sense; they had never seen a plastic product before…

They probably didn’t think it would burn.

“Fusha-sama! Muuna-sama didn’t do anything wrong! We told her to keep it for us!”

“That’s right!”

“Please don’t be angry!”

The children said this, but of course, I had no intention of being angry.

I might have felt a desire to be upset with Muuna for not managing it better, but those are kind kids.

Thinking about that, I gently patted Muuna’s head, which was wet with tears and snot from crying into my clothes.

“Don’t worry, it’s okay. I’ll make more, so don’t think about it. I’ll tell Mom that it can’t be used as a pie dish either.”

“…Really?”

“I’ll even make about three this time.”

“Really? Yay!”

With my words, my crying sister instantly perked up and handed me the burnt remains before heading outside to play with the others.

Still, it seems Muuna has been treated quite well by the other children, who were once orphans.

After all, they played together every day, which probably helped them become close like that.

As an older brother, I want to provide as many toys as I can.

That said, since I had managed to bring in a group of skilled workers, I had subcontracted the work to the rock dwarves and entrusted them with the production of the flying discs…

About a week later, several of them came to my research lab.

“Fusha-sama, look here. This red-bearded dwarf made something like this.”

Kodara handed me what appeared to be a plastic wine cup, wrapped in cloth as if it were fragile.

“This is amazing. As expected of you…”

When I ran my nails over the surface of the wine cup, it glided smoothly without any snags. It was so smooth that it could easily be mistaken for an industrial product from my previous life; I couldn’t believe it had been carved out like this.

Thinking back, plastic tableware had been something I relied on quite a bit in my past life.

In fact, it was so essential that life wouldn’t have been sustainable without it.

The red-bearded rock dwarf who made this wine cup patted my arm amiably.

“Fusha-sama, can you spare a bit more of this material? It repels water well, and it’s soft yet strong and light. I want to try using it for roofing.”

“Roofing? Ah, but plastic is weak against sunlight.”

“Against sunlight?”

As the red-bearded dwarf looked surprised, the big-nosed rock dwarf stepped forward this time.

“Fusha-sama, I want to try making a boat with this material. Can’t it be modified to be more resistant to sunlight?”

“Wait, wait, it should be for containers! If it’s this water-resistant, we might be able to make a barrel that won’t let the liquor escape!”

“Exactly! Just think how much alcohol we could save if we made bottles that wouldn’t break when dropped!”

“…”

While I watched them begin a heated debate in the lab, I found myself troubled over how to convey the various plastic products from my past life to them in a way they could understand.